Looks can be deceiving!

When I first saw this locomotive in a book, I thought the problem with how it looked was due to a camera angle problem. The next shot I saw of it compounded my disbelief and now, (after my researches into the EE-1), I now know WHY it looks the way it does. It is even, (dare I say this), logical that it would have this configuration...

As several people have gathered I have an "Alternative" viewpoint on locomotive design appreciation...

I have gathered over the ages several shots of "Alternative" design that I thought I might enjoy building. I have discovered through my research at Butterly that I have become a fan of the GIPR. This was the Great India Peninsular Railway - a colonial railway of the Raj. They persuaded that most conservative and mechanically strait laced company SLM (the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works) to design them some very strange locos. I do now understand WHY it looks like this -it has to do with the patent taken out by Sir Vincent Raven (as used in the NER EE-1).

However it still comes as a shock!

This locomotive has various designations -but I know it as either EA/1 or WCP/1.

The drive configuration is, 1-A-B0-2 as the front "pony truck" has the "G" driving wheel coupled to it, while the others (I+P) are fixed and then there is the bogie.... This gives an asymmetric layout and it thus lacks the problems of a symmetrical layout for electric traction. It is basically a "Pacific" with a electric box cab on top(!) I am grateful to Mr David Bunn who forwarded me a GIPR time table for the routes used by this locomotive and several strange things have arisen out of reading it. If I am correct with my routes then the times for this loco are actually FASTER than those of modern locomotive equivalents(???) I am also grateful the Mr M.S.G Singh who has provided me with a memory of the internal layout of one of these that he saw a a boy of 16, his father was the regular driver of "the Deccan Queen" on more than one occasion...

The bogie end (2) is believed to contain the electrical switch gear with the G. I. P. being painted over the circular meshed air intakes to the forced cooled motors.

It is going to be an interesting locomotive to research and build. My next port of call might be SLM itself!!! Well unfortunately the current owners of SLM couldn't help me -but they did point me in the direction of the Swiss Historical Railway Society and I am currently awaiting a response from them.

As I have written elsewhere, "do not be afraid to modify your model to make it easier to build" -or in this case the maths... The drawing below has the dimensions and wheel spacings subtly altered to make a more well behaved and easy to calculate articulated locomotive.

I don't know if this is the layout used by the SLM for this loco -but to me it does seem the most logical. I have spaced out the wheels so that they are equidistant and (hopefully) you can now see that the locomotive has devolved into 3 components. The Number 1 end has a Helmholtz Truck with one carrying axle and one power axle, but it is pivoted in the centre of the axle spacing rather than at the end of the next driving wheel to give a greater degree of flexibility. The two power axles are rigidly mounted to the chassis frame, these have been moved to be central and thus help with the weight distribution. These are then followed by a "classical" Adams Bogie arrangement of 2 carrying axles, with a slot and springs retaining system at the Number 2 end.